Senate ok's Amtrak; new problems loom

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Senate ok's Amtrak; new problems loom

WASHINGTON, D.C. – By a 93-6 vote, the Senate Nov. 2 approved the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act.

Senior staff of both Democrat and Republican members advised UTU’s national legislative office that they had received scores of telephone calls and e-mails from UTU members asking that they support the legislation.

The bill, however, was incorporated into a larger spending bill that still must be approved by the entire Senate, which would then require House action.

“Nonetheless, this was a significant milestone in our attempts to preserve Amtrak,” said UTU National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer.

“We have serious problems with Amtrak’s labor relations strategy, but our situation would be even worse if we cannot secure long-term and reliable funding for Amtrak," Brunkenhoefer said. "The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act will accomplish that long-term and reliable funding and that is why we are supporting it. There is no question that UTU’s bi-partisan efforts, by which we reach out equally to Republicans and Democrats, has helped us with our efforts to preserve Amtrak and its substantial contribution to Railroad Retirement.”

The bill passed Nov. 2 by the Senate would provide Amtrak with $11.4 billion for six years through 2011. This is enough money to maintain Amtrak’s current operations, upgrade its equipment and return Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to a state of good repair.

Meanwhile, the U.S. General Accountability Office Nov. 2 released a report warning of even more severe financial problems ahead for Amtrak.

As reported by the Associated Press, the GAO said Amtrak needs to improve the way it monitors performance and oversees its finances to reach solid financial ground.

"Amtrak's management may be able to correct a number of these issues on its own, but the company is likely to need outside help in developing a comprehensive approach to address internal control weaknesses and improve the financial information for management and external stakeholders," the GAO report said. GAO is the auditing arm of Congress.

"While Amtrak has recently reduced costs, revenues are declining faster than costs, leading to operating losses exceeding $1 billion annually," the report said. "These losses are projected to grow by 40 percent within four years."

The GAO recommends that the transportation secretary direct the federal railroad administrator to require Amtrak to submit a plan laying out specifically how it will improve its financial operations; provide Amtrak with direction on how to do so, and; monitor the railroad's performance and report to Congress on Amtrak's progress.

Other highlights of the report include:

* Over $500,000 in performance bonuses were given to Amtrak managers, despite the lack of measurable performance goals. These awards were issued even though the company's financial picture had not been finalized.

* Amtrak President David Gunn received a substantial cash performance bonus, although the performance goals in his employment contract were never filled in.

* Amtrak procures $500-$600 million in goods and services per year, but was unable to provide GAO with detailed, comprehensive data on total spending.

* There is no company-wide strategic plan or cost containment strategy.

* No-bid contracts were awarded without justification even when Amtrak's own guidelines required justification.

* Initial contracts were expanded far beyond their original scope - a software contract was increased from $60,000 to over $500,000; a signal survey services contract went from $45,000 to over $764,000.

* Of $4.3 billion in costs for 2002-03, only $357 million (8 percent) was directly assigned to each train line. Amtrak allocated the other 92 percent of costs to the various lines using arbitrary formulas, for which GAO could not find supported.

* Purchase order arrangements designed for contracts under $5,000 were used for $100,000 purchases.

The GAO report, entitled, “Systemic Problems Require Actions to Improve Efficiency, Effectiveness and Accountability, may be accessed at www.gao.gov.

November 3, 2005

 

[Guest]

BNSF:

Thanks.

So if I’m understanding this part correctly and tell me if I’m wrong, “This is enough money to maintain Amtrak’s current operations, upgrade its equipment and return Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to a state of good repair”, one can assume that the Auto Train’s future is safe for the time being?

Also, what’s your thoughts on a Bush veto? Enough votes to overide it?

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

BNSF:
Thanks.

So if I’m understanding this part correctly and tell me if I’m wrong, “This is enough money to maintain Amtrak’s current operations, upgrade its equipment and return Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to a state of good repair”, one can assume that the Auto Train’s future is safe for the time being?

Also, what’s your thoughts on a Bush veto? Enough votes to overide it?

Yes the Auto train will be safe as long as Bush doesn't VETO this i think he will try just to throw his weight around but if i was him i would let this go if he trys to VETO this he will realy look like a bigger A$# then he alredy is.

 

[Trogdor]

S.1516 didn't pass on its own. Instead, it was just added onto the budget bill. Therefore, a veto is unlikely.

 

[rile42]

I sent several messages to my Senators DeWine and Voinovich from Ohio. Senator DeWine has contacted me each time through a letter supporting Amtrak funding with some concerns though. I have never heard from Senator Voinovich despite numerous messages requesting his thoughts on the matter. There were six senators voting against the measure. Senator Voinovich was one of them. Now I understand his reluctance to express his views. I urge all Ohioans that use Amtrak to keep his vote in mind the next time he runs, if he does.

 

[Trogdor]

Meanwhile, the U.S. General Accountability Office Nov. 2 released a report warning of even more severe financial problems ahead for Amtrak.

I don't feel like going over it all again, but those on the Yahoo Group "All_Aboard" can see my review of the GAO report there.

Long story short, there's nothing in the GAO report that we didn't already know. Much ado about nothing.

"While Amtrak has recently reduced costs, revenues are declining faster than costs, leading to operating losses exceeding $1 billion annually," the report said. "These losses are projected to grow by 40 percent within four years."

Yes, operating losses are projected to grow by 40%. In fact, Amtrak said as much back in June 2004. This isn't news, people. It's a pathetic attempt to slander Amtrak and David Gunn, despite the progress he has made (and the GAO report even recognizes that progress).

 

[user 5784]

"S.1516 didn't pass on its own. Instead, it was just added onto the budget bill. Therefore, a veto is unlikely."

--------------

this is all part of the budget reconciliation bill, which doesnt make actual law and does not need to be signed by the president. Its simply a budget blueprint.

( i work on capitol hill).

 

[Sam Damon]

"S.1516 didn't pass on its own. Instead, it was just added onto the budget bill. Therefore, a veto is unlikely."
--------------

this is all part of the budget reconciliation bill, which doesnt make actual law and does not need to be signed by the president. Its simply a budget blueprint.

( i work on capitol hill).

To borrow a baseball analogy: what inning are we in, in terms of Amtrak continuing operation, next year?

NARP seems to be mobilizing the troops, but as I'm sure you know MontanaJim, it's easy as a constituent to be labeled a "pen pal" on the Hill.

 

[user 5784]

every year amtrak needs its funding reauthorized. it will start with the budget in the spring, then on to the authorization-apprporiation process, which is usually concluded by the new fiscal year (October 1)

 

[Trogdor]

every year amtrak needs its funding reauthorized. it will start with the budget in the spring, then on to the authorization-apprporiation process, which is usually concluded by the new fiscal year (October 1)

The last several years, the process has not been concluded by October 1. It's ranged from mid-November to late February.

 

[user 5784]

"The last several years, the process has not been concluded by October 1. It's ranged from mid-November to late February. "

For some approps, that is correct.

 

[user 5784]

and in that case, a temporary approps bill has to be passed to keep vital govt functions running. (im sure everyone here remembers the govt shutdown in 1995, when a stopgap bill was passed for a few days after october 1)

 

[haolerider]

Amtrak has been on a Continuing Resolution for funding for the past several years - with final resolutin of the budget amount not being settled until January in one year............kind of like giving your child an allowance each month.

 

[user 5784]

the most important step is the approps part. every step is important, but THE most important is the final appropriation of money. the budget amount is just a blueprint, the approps commitee can change that amt if it wishes.

 

[guest_jeffw]

They wanted Amtrak to run more like a business, and it looks like with all the things the GAO is complaining about, that Amtrak is indeed operating like one!

:lol:

 

[trainboy325]

The passing of Amtrak by the Senate is great, but still doesn't change the long-term problems facing the long distance trains. I've received word from management here in New Orleans that major service cuts are coming to the many East Coast trains. First of all, the diner will be coming off the Crescent in mid-December, in spite of Amtrak telling its employees that the Diner-lite cars will only "supplement", rather than replace the traditional diner as stated in the September Amtrak Ink article. In addition to the Crescent, the diner is gone on the Lake Shore sometime around Christmas (exact date isn't known by my source). As for the Silver Service trains, the diner will stay on the Meteor for a while, with both Diner-lite and the regular diner on the Star coming in a few weeks, only if Bear, DE can get more of them out by then. My MIA coworkers may know more about this than NOL management. What I can say is that major on-board service cuts, including reducing the number of sleepers per train on the single-level trains is due to the inevitable breakdown of the Viewliners in very cold weather. The cars have major problems with toilets not flushing with frozen water tanks, HVAC systems that don't respond to en-route adjustments (especially traveling between warm Florida and cold New York), and every other thing that makes them America's most expensive piece of junk! Sorry, after years of working these cars, I never had a trip which one these cars didn't give me a dissatified passenger that wanted their money back and said they never would ride Amtrak again.

Amtrak managers are still working a plan to reshape the long distance train network. The hurricanes and the food service cuts that followed were tests to feel the waters of "real" food service demands with the mainsteam passenger clientele. I've read on this forum that the diner is back on the City, but I haven't been told by my supervisor that's it back (he keeps me up to date about service changes for the purpose of posting facts on this forum). No one else I know in NOL has told me that it's back either. Management is clueless to the diner situation or its return was just rumor. If someone has "actually" seen it with their own eyes, please let me know. I can't drive to NOL to check it out myself at this time. If it's back, then management has to be staffing it out of CHI because I never got a recall letter as a Service Attendant (waiter). I only was asked to come back as a Train Attendant, which unfortunately I couldn't accept as my apartment in NOL was damaged too much by water. I know that Amtrak was desperate to get people to work in NOL since many of the pre-Katrina employees have relocated away from the area due to home damage and have learned that there are better places in Amtrak to work than NOL.

 

[AlanB]

Sorry, after years of working these cars, I never had a trip which one these cars didn't give me a dissatified passenger that wanted their money back and said they never would ride Amtrak again.

Interesting, as I've done many a trip in a Viewliner and beyond the TV systems and one trip on the former Twilight Shoreliner (the carpet in my room was wet), I've never had an issue with the car. At least from my perspective, that of a passenger, I find them far superior to the Superliner Sleepers.

If someone has "actually" seen it with their own eyes, please let me know. I can't drive to NOL to check it out myself at this time.

No one has actually seen it yet, since rmadisonwi's info states that the first run would be #58 on the 8th of November.

Sorry to hear that you suffered from extensive water damage to your apartment.

 

[trainboy325]

Thanks for the info! I didn't look to see what date he wrote in the post. There may still be hope for the City, but NOL keeps getting the runaround from corporate about whether or not they'll get the service back, or even keep the crew base open through the end of year. The OBS manager in NOL is a real piece of work. She'll do everything in her power to keep the diner from coming back since she wants that bonus SOOOO bad. She even brought it up in a meeting about low sales in the car. She said right to our faces in the pre-trip briefings that the dining car on the City is non-essential luxury for the sleeping car passengers that needs to go. She makes no effort to hide her true feelings about a City diner. She wants it GONE! When every other crew base makes sure there is enough staff for the car, she'll make sure that the car is understaffed (no food specialist or just one waiter for 80 seats) to hinder the amount of meals a crew can prepare in a meal period. And make sure you don't work a minute over alloted meal period times, especially dinner, or she'll write you up in a heartbeat for insubordination for breaking her personal rule about operating the car outside of Amtrak's Service Standards hours of operation. This was especially true about the departure out of CHI. The train leaves at 8pm. By the time you open, serve and have all dishes cleaned, it was always after 10pm, which is when dining car employees are taken off the clock. In order to comply with her policy, the diner opened about 20 minutes after departure, and by the time the first passenger from the sleeper could make it to the car (the City's main sleeper 5800/5900 is on the back and sleeper car passengers have to walk through three coaches), the LSA was making an annoucement that the car was closed. What's worse is that a lot of passenger get on at HMW in the sleeper before 9 o'clock, and we send them away. According the Amtrak Service Standards manual, they're entitled to dinner, but they won't get it because of our OBS managers "no late dinner" policy! You'd think that years of getting passenger complaints and letters things would change! Nope, she's given awards for excellent management. These are the things that tell me that Amtrak DOES NOT car about long-distance trains or the service on-board them.

As for the Viewliners, I had more happy customers than those who were unhappy, mainly because of my level of service than the equipment. The vast majority of Amtrak passengers never have experienced travel in a traditional streamliner sleeper and don't have anything to compare them to other than the Superliners. The wet floors, especially in rooms 11 and 12, is due to the poor plumbing and leaks in the beverage counter area from the coffee maker system and sink. As a passenger, I enjoy my travel in the Viewliner, but they're a pain in the butt for the attendant. With the removal of the television system, things have slightly improved having to spending less time having to explain why they didn't work or why Amtrak won't replace them. The beverage counter is a hit and miss deal, sometimes getting a regular coffee maker, a "bag in the box" machine or no machine at all. Then there's the fact that if you get a machine, does it work! Lately, the coffee machines have been maintained to a level that worrying about them working isn't much of an issue. Don't even get me started about the HVAC system! It doesn't matter how good the mechanics are or how much time they have to fix them, the system is operated by a computer so off the wall that it makes the technology depicted in the 1970's Star Wars movies look like state-of-the-art machinery. :blink:

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Don't we have information on who the Amtrak citizen advisor panel members are, the one that we had an announcement a while back that they were looking for new members of it? If so, can't we contact them , give them this information, including the name of the LSA and her work schedule, and request that they travel that train to document that Amtrak through that LSA is abrogating it's contractual obligations to serve dinner in the diner to those folks, and then report the LSA and raise a large stink about it to Amtrak HQ through the panel? Wouldn't addressing it that way have a lot more clout?

 

[WICT106]

Thank you, trainboy325, for your insight and information. I'd be disappointed if the diner were to come off of the Capitol or the Silver Service. i've known of the challenges facing the Viewliners for a few years now, and understand why they have so few of them. I think that during the season, the Silver Service could run with 4 or more sleepers per train.

I'm sorry to learn of the dining car situation. Was this not tried sometime during the early 1980s, along with the microwave TV dinners?

I'm also sorry to learn of the management attitudes regarding some of the other things you posted, but then this seems to typical of certain companies where the bean-counter mentality rules the roost. it's where one forgoes potential (long-term, in the form of returning customers) revenue in order to save a few (short-term) pennies. IOW, penny-wise and very pound-foolish.

Feel free to keep us informed. I've taken the Capitol and the Silver Service on numerous trips between the Midwest and FL, and would hate to see the service downgraded even further. It sounds like what the SP did back prior to Amtrak in order to eliminate the trains: First run off the customers with downgraded or por service, then request discontinuance because no one is riding the trains.

 

[Trogdor]

Don't we have information on who the Amtrak citizen advisor panel members are, the one that we had an announcement a while back that they were looking for new members of it? If so, can't we contact them , give them this information, including the name of the LSA and her work schedule, and request that they travel that train to document that Amtrak through that LSA is abrogating it's contractual obligations to serve dinner in the diner to those folks, and then report the LSA and raise a large stink about it to Amtrak HQ through the panel? Wouldn't addressing it that way have a lot more clout?

The ACAC members are regular people, with regular jobs doing regular stuff, and don't have time to go chasing employees down for disciplinary reasons (nor is it their duty to do so).

If you have a problem with an Amtrak employee, record as much information as you can, and contact customer service. David Gunn may care about rude employees, but I think customer service will accomplish the same function (it's not as if David Gunn gets your letter, drops everything, and runs out to personally punish that employee).

I tend to reserve letters to Gunn for issues that I think indicate problems with managerial decision-making or general disorganization at Amtrak (i.e. the way they handled the truncated Coast Starlight issue last winter).

 

[Guest]

Don't we have information on who the Amtrak citizen advisor panel members are, the one that we had an announcement a while back that they were looking for new members of it? If so, can't we contact them , give them this information, including the name of the LSA and her work schedule, and request that they travel that train to document that Amtrak through that LSA is abrogating it's contractual obligations to serve dinner in the diner to those folks, and then report the LSA and raise a large stink about it to Amtrak HQ through the panel? Wouldn't addressing it that way have a lot more clout?

In fact my mother is on the Amtrak Customer Advisory Committee. If you have things to discuss, customer service wise, i will try and let her know

 

[MrFSS]

The ACAC members are regular people, with regular jobs doing regular stuff, and don't have time to go chasing employees down for disciplinary reasons (nor is it their duty to do so).

Just out of curiosity, how many members are there on this committee?

 

[Guest]

As for the Silver Service trains, the diner will stay on the Meteor for a while, with both Diner-lite and the regular diner on the Star coming in a few weeks, only if Bear, DE can get more of them out by then. My MIA coworkers may know more about this than NOL management. What I can say is that major on-board service cuts, including reducing the number of sleepers per train on the single-level trains is due to the inevitable breakdown of the Viewliners in very cold weather. The cars have major problems with toilets not flushing with frozen water tanks, HVAC systems that don't respond to en-route adjustments (especially traveling between warm Florida and cold New York), and every other thing that makes them America's most expensive piece of junk! Sorry, after years of working these cars, I never had a trip which one these cars didn't give me a dissatified passenger that wanted their money back and said they never would ride Amtrak again.

As you seem to have some inside information that the rest of us don’t, tell me how these cuts affect the Auto Train. As I understand it, the best I can from the information provided, the Auto Train consist of trains 52 & 53 and is not included as one of the “Silver Service” trains. The Silver Service trains are the Silver Star, trains 91 & 92 and the Silver Meteor, trains 97 & 98.

When you spoke about major on-board service cutbacks, were you including the Auto Train? If so, why would Amtrak do anything that is counter productive to what most have said is one the true “money makers” in their system?

Any thoughts on this or have you heard of any service cutbacks for the Auto Train? Should we anticipate that the Auto Train will be a “piece of junk” prior to riding on same?

 

[trainboy325]

In response to AmtrakWPK, the problems with the City's diner service problem isn't with the on-board crew members, but the manager that oversees us that sets the rules, policies, etc. for the City of New Orleans staff. It doesn't matter what the Amtrak Service Standards manual says, we are bound to follow internal rules and memos developed by our crew base. If we disregard the local policies in order to accomodate passengers printed in the Amtrak Service Standards, we only can use the manual as a source of defense in the event we receive a "letter of intent to discipline", the first step in discipline required by our union contract. But in most cases, the hearing officer is the OBS manager, who's responsible for filing the notice in our HR file, notifying our union representative and mailing us a copy for our records.

I absolutely want to make sure that everyone knows that it is the OBS Manager in New Orleans that it the biggest problem there, not the crews, crew base manager or operations supervisors. As I've stated before, the overall management at NOL is top notch. Unfortunately, the person who's responsible for making the trains run right is BAD FOR PASSENGERS. In addition, she seems to be untouchable as far as company discipline is concerned and is never "really" held responsible for making bad decisions.

As with the service cuts that I know of, they only apply to SINGLE LEVEL trains, not Auto Train or the Capitol. As I, as well as many others on this forum, have already said many times, the Auto Train is a separate and independent unit within Amtrak. In the unlikely event that every long distance train becomes a Palmetto-type train, the Auto Train is will most likely chug along business as usual. However, it's always important to post a disclaimer when writing about Amtrak because they do things that make no fiscal or operational sense from time to time. :lol: